Monday, September 16, 2013

XXX Auteur: An Interview with Nica Noelle

Courtesy of Nica Noelle

Hi folks! I was recently lucky enough to be asked to do some director and performer interviews for Adult DVD Talk,
with free reign as to who I reached out to. Naturally, my first thought
was Nica Noelle, an adult film powerhouse who I have long admired for
her seemingly-constant creative evolutions, and a willingness to push
the creative and categorical boundaries of hardcore in way that I deeply
admire. Nica has been extremely busy developing four exciting and
groundbreaking studios of late, and she graciously accepted my request
to chat about her life, career, sexual politics, and recent creative
ventures in hardcore film. Enjoy!

*************************

How did you get into the porn industry? I know you started
out performing and then transitioned into writing, directing, and also
performing. How did this come about? Did you know you wanted to be a
writer/director from the very start?

I had always been drawn to the adult industry, from the time
I was an adolescent and noticed the marquees at Times Square for adult films,
or would sneak a dirty magazine from under my parents' bed. I was intrigued by
the women, because they seemed so different from any I knew in real life; e.g.,
my mother and my friends' moms. Also the strange mixture of fear, desire and
anger that women in the sex industry aroused in people was very intriguing to
me.

But I had no particular plans to be in porn. I worked as a
stripper for many years, but I wasn't one of those girls who loved the
lifestyle or attention. I didn't do drugs or party and I was never much of an "attention whore." It was
more that I wanted to be around the sex industry as an observer. I liked
analyzing it and thinking about it and observing the girls, and the best way to
do that was to join in myself. But I always kept more of a narrator's perspective. I wrote
constantly; I kept daily journals. First and foremost I was always a thinker
and a writer.

Courtesy of Nica Noelle

When I was in my late 20s, though, I decided I should
probably get a "real job" and grow up, join the rest of society, that
sort of thing. So I focused more on journalism, I became a newspaper reporter
and magazine writer, and a paralegal. But I felt a little lost in the corporate
world with no connection to the sex industry, so I started writing about it. I
wrote articles for Exotic Dancer magazine and I became the editor for Private
Dancer magazine. That led to essays for other magazines, which in turn led me
to performing my first fetish video for Kelly Payne's Tantrum Trainer series.
She gives a hell of a spanking and I wrote about that experience for Spread
magazine. And starring in that video led me to work for a lesbian film company.
It was just a tiny company back then, with a rinky dink, outdated website.
The owner operated the whole thing out of his house. He told me he was kind of
at a loss for how to take his studio to the next level, because he felt he
needed a woman at the helm in order to do that. So after he had used me as a
model a few times he asked me if I would be interested in writing some scripts,
since that wasn't his strong suit. So I wrote some scripts for him, and then he
told me I could direct the scripts I was writing and that he wanted me to
essentially take over the creative direction of the studio. He said he thought
I could give the company a "shot in the arm." So I took a big pay cut
from the law firm, left that job, and I took over the creative direction of his
studio.

I basically changed the way he was doing everything. I began
casting well known porn stars, doing lots of promotions, writing scripts that
made sense, I completely designed the new website and insisted we have a fan
forum because I noticed how much the fans loved to communicate about movies and
post their reviews. And within a year
of my taking over, the studio was the talk of the industry. From there MileHigh Media offered me a deal to start up my own studios, so I went on to create
Sweetheart Video and Sweet Sinner, which set off the "couple's porn"
trend, and now I've teamed up with AEBN and created four more successful
studios and branched out to TS and gay porn, too.

What were your
expectations of the porn industry? Which preconceived notions were challenged,
and which were reinforced?

I guess the biggest shock to me is that the porn community
is not actually a culture of individuals and iconoclasts and misfits that think
for themselves. There's a group ideology and most definitely group politics.
You're expected to be a "rebel" in a very specific way, the same way
that everyone else is a rebel, and there are ramifications and consequences if
you try to go against that and do your own thing. I've come to the conclusion
that people are essentially sheep no matter where they are, but it's more
insidious within "subcultures" because you feel like you're being an
individual, but really you're still being controlled by the group. It's just a
different group.

You recently wrote a provocative article about your
resistance to labels, specifically to the “feminist porn” label. What do you
find problematic about such naming? What are your feelings about the feminist
porn movement in general? Do you identify as feminist? What does feminism mean
to you?

This whole "feminist porn movement" is a
disingenuous marketing strategy that certain female directors are trying to
capitalize on. I think my article said some things that needed to be said,
especially that male porn fans are always being vilified while feminists are
continuously patting themselves on the back and taking credit for this
wonderful change in the way porn is made. One prominent "feminist porn" director was so furious with me
after my essay was published that she actually tried to rally public anger
against me.But it wasn't
just her; a lot of feminist pornographers came out swinging against the woman
who dared speak for herself and not get on the party train.But I don't know what they were so mad about.
They can still work that angle and write their books and do their little
conferences. All I said was, leave me out of the feminist rhetoric and
politics. I don't want my work described that way, and that's my choice.

You have had several muses over the course of your career. Can you elaborate on these women and explain what you found so inspirational about them?

It's all different things. Unique people inspire me. Maybe
they have a certain quality, a type of beauty or sexuality or depth that you
don't see every day. I like people with contradictions; people who are a bit of
a mystery. I don't even necessarily have to like them as people, I just have to
find them compelling. Suddenly I'm just overflowing with ideas about how I want
to shoot them, what characters I want them to play. It's almost like a
spiritual experience, and that's why I do call them "muses," as
pretentious as it sounds. They inspire me to do something special for them, and
it doesn't even feel like a choice.

You recently departed from Sweet Sinner/Sweetheart (Mile
High Video) and partnered with aebn to produce not one, not two, but FOUR
connected studios: Rock Candy (guy-guy), Hard Candy (boy-girl), TransRomantic
(trans women), and Girl Candy (girl-girl). As far as I know, you’re the only
person in history to have accomplished such a feat. What was the motivation
behind creating these studios? How are they going?

Jerry Anders, who is my partner at AEBN, was always a big
supporter of mine, long before we went into business together. I remember
reading an article about myself in a trade magazine several years back, where
he was quoted as saying I was the most important erotic writer and director of
this era. I had to read that a few times to make sure I wasn't imagining it, I
was so blown away. But Jerry would always tell me I was the most searched
director on the VOD site, and that my movies would always go right to the top
of the sales chart, so I thought "Wow, this guy really believes in
me." So when I was looking to
expand beyond my deal with Mile High, I called Jerry and asked if he would be
interested in collaborating with me on a side project or two, and within a few
days he was flying me out to the AEBN offices. They made me an offer to be
partners and start new studios, which was a big step for them and for me, too,
because it meant leaving my studios with Mile High behind. I was definitely
worried that lightning wouldn't strike a third time. I thought, "what if
I'm overplaying my hand? What if my fans don't follow me again?" But AEBN
was offering me profit sharing and more creative freedom, and that was huge. I
really wanted to move into gay and TS porn and Mile High wasn't ready to let me
do that at the time, so that kind of cinched the deal for me.

And obviously the new studios are
doing great. Girl Candy has been especially successful, because I've been able
to make some changes that I felt were necessary to keep the girl/girl genre
fresh and interesting. TransRomantic has been a big success as well, and it won
two prestigious awards for its debut release Forbidden Lovers.
(Tranny Awards "DVD of the Year" and Feminist Porn Awards
"Steamiest Romantic Movie")

But the
real game changer for me has been the success of Rock Candy Films. It's always
been my dream to make gay porn, and so far the response has been overwhelming,
both critically and in sales. So I'm very focused on that studio and I'm
shooting a lot of gay features. I love telling men's love stories, and to be
blunt, I haven't felt this creatively inspired in years.

A couple of years back, you attempted to start a
performer-focused and run union, which ultimately failed. Ona Zee attempted the
same in the 1990s, and also failed. Why did you feel it was important to create
this union? Was there performer interest? Why did it fail?

It wasn't a union, it was a Performer's Association that
would focus on education and health resources strictly for performers. This is
kind of a tricky subject because I'm now friends with the people who were
against it at the time. But it failed because we were deeply afraid of the
internet bullying from people who thought the Performer's Association was an
attempt to go against the FSC and challenge their authority. I had never
experienced internet bullying before, and I was actually afraid for my life and
my child's life. The internet stalking was getting very intense, and was
starting to seem dangerous. Then my partner in the venture had a psychological
breakdown, in part from the stress and the bullying, so I stepped away. I
decided I would just focus on privately making the changes to my own set that I
felt were necessary. I still feel a Performer's Association is needed, and I'd
still like to see one happen, especially now. But I don't think I'm cut out for
politics, so I'd probably stay in the background next time and do more of the
grunt work. Let the politicians handle the politics. It's a full time job, and
I already have a full time job making movies.

You seem to have a particular interest in period
settings—the Victorian settings of many Sweetheart/Sweet Sinner films, and the
1930s setting of your Rock Candy film, His Mother’s Lover. What is it about
porn films set in the past that appeals to you?

The extra layer of "taboo"
more than anything. In Victorian times there were strict rules of etiquette
that everyone was expected to follow, so the sexual tension must have been
overwhelming (and if you've read any Victorian erotica, it obviously was.)
These days people run around half naked coming on to each other like it's no
big deal, but back then you couldn't do that and most people wouldn't do that.
So it was a much more romantic time, a more sexually anguished time. You could
be in love with someone your whole life and not be able to act on it or even
tell them because social customs forbade it. And if it was a gay or lesbian
romance, it was even more scandalous and forbidden. Maybe you'd just have one
secret tryst with your object of desire that nobody could ever know about. That
social climate of sexual repression makes for some very hot porn.

While your films cover a variety of themes, they all have
social transgression in common. This is arguably the purpose of all
pornography, but your films make it more literal and visible than most. What
kinds of social transgression appeal to you or intrigue you erotically?

I like the older/younger dynamic and I like as many layers
of forbidden and taboo attraction as possible. The teacher/student, the
step-parent and step-son or daughter, even depicting truly incestuous
relationships, if I could get away with it. Actually my film Nobody's Daughter
is about an incestuous, abusive relationship between a father and daughter, but
I couldn't come right out and say it in the movie or we would have distribution
problems. So the viewer has to kind of figure it out for himself: "Oh,
those are her parents!" And I don't think most people did, but I got a few
emails from people who were like "I hate to ask this, but ...."

In my mind, exploring forbidden themes that we either can't
or don't want to explore in real life is what porn is really all about. But
there's this weird belief that if someone sees a movie about a mother and son
in an incestuous relationship that it will cause people to feel turned on by
incest and then start doing it themselves. Suddenly mothers everywhere will be
seducing their sons. And it's a cliché argument, but: why
does no one worry about this when it comes to making movies about serial
killers or other violent crimes? Violence is all over TV and film, but
arguments that it causes viewers to be desensitized to violence in real life
are scoffed at. So it really doesn't make any sense. People are just afraid of
any sexual themes. We're afraid of their own sexual desires because most of us
don't understand them. So it's like "Don't open Pandora's Box! We don't
know what's in there!"

Of the many films you have made, which are you most proud of
and why?

I'm most proud of His Mother's Lover, which was
my debut gay film for Rock Candy Films, My Sister Celine for
Sweetheart Video, Nobody's Daughter for Hard Candy Films,
Last Tango for Sweet Sinner Films, and Gia: Lesbian Supermodel for Girl Candy Films. Those were all films where I felt
something special was happening, some type of alchemy and magic. It's a
combination of the performances, the chemistry between the performers, how
inspired I was to write the material, and just an overall energy, like the Porn
Gods were smiling down on us in some way. And those are always the films that
end up affecting people the most, and the ones I get long, emotional emails
from fans about for years after they're released. Porn really can affect people
emotionally, sometimes more than a mainstream movie can.

You have accomplished so much in your career so far. What’s
up next for you? Do you have any life goals that you have yet to achieve?

I'm working on a book. I'm giving myself a year to get it
done. It's kind of an overwhelming project, but I can't help but think that
I'll end my days on this earth as a writer, so it's time to start moving in
that direction in more of a real way. Articles and blogs are fine and I write
them all the time, but to publish a book kind of puts you in a different
category, especially if it's well-crafted and has a point to it.

Other than that, I'm just trying to
stay on track in terms of my philosophies and beliefs about erotic entertainment,
continuing to grow as a filmmaker without compromising health or safety to make
a quick buck. You have to really take stock of yourself and your motives
constantly when you're in this business, because the pressure to go with the
flow and be motivated by sales and money is intense. I'm sure that's why people
end up broken so much of the time, and regretful of their years in porn. This
industry could be a wonderful, magical place, an expansive place of discovery. But unfortunately mainstream society still
refuses to acknowledge adult film as an art form and continues to view adult
performers as expendable. So, to a large degree performers see
themselves that way, too. I don't know if any of that will change in my
lifetime, but in my own small way I hope to stand against it for as long as I'm
here making movies.